The Tomb of Memory
by Hoshi-tachi
Summary: There's something ODD about Duo and Quatre's new safehouse... Maybe it's that constant feeling of being watched. Yaoi, slash, what have you. Violence and character death.
1. In Which We See A Departure

Title: The Tomb of Memory

Author: hoshi-tachi

Category: Gundam Wing/ Harry Potter crossover

Rating: PG-13

Pairings: Not a bloody clue- er, wait, 3x4 for sure. Still deciding on the rest.

Summary: There's something _odd_ about Duo and Quatre's new safehouse. Maybe it's that constant sensation of being watched…

Warnings: Violence, swearing… no abuse this time, oddly enough. Yaoi… which is male homosexuality for you ignorant people out there. Don't like it? Press the back button.

Disclaimer: Despite my fondest, I have yet to own either Gundam Wing or Harry Potter. Pity.

* * *

How the _fuck_ did she keep finding them?

_I mean_, Duo reflected as he ducked back inside the house and safely out of sight of the limo, _we change addresses, names, hell, we even got Heero working the computers. It's impossible!_

So how was that pink freak of a limousine sitting outside their safehouse?

_Again?_

Knowing they didn't have much time, the braided American shook the questions from his mind and ran for the living room, where the others hopefully were.

All eyes turned towards the former thief as he burst into the room and slid to a stop. "Duo, what-?" Quatre started to ask, rising from his seat on a couch.

"Relena's here," Duo said, interrupting the blonde with only the slightest of qualms. Around them, the air filled with curses.

Okay, so maybe only Fei-kun was actually cursing, and that was in Chinese, but the hyperactive teenager was fairly certain they were curses even if he couldn't understand them.

With an unseemly haste that he would later deny ever having adopted, Heero headed for the back room he shared with Duo. A minute later he emerged with a duffel bag in hand. The Japanese boy nodded briskly to his fellow pilots, before striding to the back door and out into the night.

Still blinking in surprise, Quatre looked at the other three and shrugged. "Perhaps we should follow his example?"

"Shit, that's got my vote," Duo said, snorting. "There's no way I'm stickin' around to wait for Miss Princess to interrogate me." Not waiting to see if anyone else agreed with him, he took off for the bedrooms.

* * *

When he came out, lugging an identical bag, only Quatre was waiting for him. "Where's everyone else?"

The little blonde smiled cheerfully, hefting his own duffel in one hand. "Well, both Trowa and Wufei have missions in this area tomorrow, so it wouldn't really be best for them to leave right now."

Duo grinned. "So they're out distracting Relena for our escape?"

The smile grew. "Precisely."

"Well, we'd better not waste their sacrifice, then. Onward, Macduff!" With that said, the braided American bounced out of the room. Quatre followed close behind, the smile on his face changing to one of bemusement.

* * *

"So where're we goin', anyway?" Duo chirruped curiously an hour later, peering out through the shuttle's round window.

Beside him, Quatre shoved his bag in the overhead compartment and sat down. "First we have a short stopover in Paris, and then we take another flight to London. Not more than a couple hours in the air total, and in a couple of days we can send coordinates to the others."

The other boy turned, glancing at his companion with amethyst eyes. "An' what's in England? Another safehouse?"

"Well, yes. It's a house that the Winner Corporation owns." The Arabian ignored Duo's muttered "As usual" and continued. "This one's a bit unusual, though. Not quite a national treasure, but certainly an… oddity."

Duo looked skeptical. "What, is it a castle or somethin'?"

"Quite the opposite," Quatre said, smiling. "It's a remnant from that building craze at the end of the twentieth century, suburbia."

Duo wrinkled his nose slightly. "You mean when they built everything to look the same?"

"Yes. Most of them have fallen apart in the three centuries since, but not this one. In fact, that's what's so unusual about it. In three hundred years, there hasn't been any decay whatsoever. Supposedly, it looks exactly the way it did when it was built."

Duo cocked his head slightly. "Supposedly?"

Quatre shrugged. "I've never actually been there myself."

"Oh." The American pondered that for a few seconds. "Does anyone know why it ain't fallin' apart?"

The blonde boy shook his head. "One or twice a year scientists will petition the company to go visit it, but they never come up with anything. Don't worry," he added as Duo frowned in concern. "I'm the one who has to grant the petitions. There won't be anyone there while we are."

The braided boy nodded, leaning his head back against his seat and closing his eyes. There was nothing but silence for a minute, before he opened his mouth, eyes still closed. "Ya know anything else about it?"

Quatre studied him carefully, puzzled. "Why the interest? I hadn't thought you enjoyed architecture."

An annoyed violet eye slit open. "This thing doesn't even have a movie. I'm tryin' to avoid boredom here."

"So why don't you just sleep for a bit?"

Duo snorted. "'Cause the sugar high from that dessert thing you made still hasn't worn off, that's why."

"…Oh." Quatre mused over that quietly. "All right, I can tell you a bit about the house's history, then."

"How do ya know so much about it? I didn't think architecture was _your_ strong point, either."

The blonde shrugged, shifting in his seat. "One of those petitions I mentioned came in a couple of months ago. It seemed kind of interesting, so I did some research. For instance, the first residents were murdered."

_That_ caught Shinigami's attention. "Really?"

Quatre nodded sadly. "It was just before that vicious little war, the one where no one could figure out who was fighting whom. All four of them were found the next day by a concerned neighbor. Husband and wife, their son, and the wife's nephew. According to the coroner's report, there were no marks on the bodies, no reason for the family to die like that."

"That's… actually kind of creepy," Duo said, glancing out the window, then back at his companion. "And this is the place we're stayin' in?"

"You're not the only one to think that." Quatre smiled at his friend's almost nervous expression. "There haven't really been any permanent residents since. Even the scientists never stay more than a couple of weeks."

After a moment the American grinned maniacally, folding his arms. "Cool."

Quatre shook his head in exasperation. "Only you, Duo. Only you."

Still grinning, Duo slid down and shut his eyes, deciding to try to sleep after all. "Hey, Q?" he asked a bit drowsily, one last thought hitting him.

"Yes, Duo?"

"Where is this place, anyway?"

"It's in Surrey. 4 Privet Drive."

* * *

A/N: Okay, this is my _other_ idea for a Harry Potter/Gundam Wing crossover. This one, though, is more centered on the Gundam universe, while the other is more based on the Harry Potter universe. Or, will be, eventually. If I can ever get around to writing the fourth chapter…

Kou: Don't worry, I'll try to get on her case about that next.

Joy… Anyway, review if you like it, hopefully you'll just ignore it if you don't.

Oh! And I almost forgot- pairings! I'm not doing 1x2 this time, since I'm doing that in Akuryou, but I'll take other suggestions into consideration.


	2. In Which We See An Arrival

Summary, Warnings and Disclaimer: If I ever have anything else to say about these categories, I'll mention them here.

* * *

_Everyone leave me stranded_

_Forgotten_

_Abandoned_

_Left behind_

_I can't stay here another night…_

_**-Evanescence, "Solitude"**_

* * *

"Duo. Duo! Wake up!"

Duo stirred sullenly, only opening an eye with extreme reluctance at his friend's urging. "Yeah, Quat? Wha' is it?" he muttered, still half-asleep.

"We're here. We need to get out so the taxi can leave," the little Arabian said, looking at the braided boy with a concerned smile.

"Oh, okay." Duo smiled back sleepily, before his mind caught up with him. _Wait, _taxi? _I thought we were in a shuttle…oh._ The pilot relaxed a bit as memories of a spaceport filled with crying children and sharp-eyed businessmen even at that late hour flashed through his mind. _Damn. I must have been more tired than I thought…_

Rubbing a hand over his eyes, Duo stepped out of the cab into a light drizzle that did nothing for his mood but wonders for waking him up. Behind him, he could hear Quatre asking the driver how much they owed as the American found his eyes drawn to their newest, if temporary home.

It was odd. The house was pleasant enough to look at even in the post-midnight darkness, a rather large two-story with a nice lawn, but for some reason Duo was already starting to dislike it. Maybe it was how all of its siblings had been replaced long ago, by homes that looked nothing like it, yet the building still exuded a feeling of having come off of an assembly line.

Say whatever you like for conformity, Duo would always come down on the side of originality.

Turning when Quatre called his name, the teenager caught his duffel as the blonde tossed it at him. The boy closed the cab door firmly, and it drove off into the night. With his back to the house, Duo never saw the pair of eyes that watched them from an upstairs window.

Not that he could have anyway.

* * *

The drowsiness was already re-conquering the American as he stood blinking in the front hallway. The dusty hall had been revealed when Quatre turned on the lights, and he could tell the blonde was embarrassed at the lack of housekeeping.

"So where are the bedrooms?" he asked, resettling the bag's strap on his shoulder so it didn't cut so much into his skin.

"Upstairs, I believe. I'll pull up the blueprints tomorrow for us to memorize. Um, you'll probably want to change the sheets, too."

"Gotcha. See ya in the morning, then?"

Quatre grinned teasingly. "Don't you mean afternoon, Duo?"

Rolling his eyes, the braided boy stuck out his tongue and ran up the stairs. Up top, a wide hallway stretched the length of the house, with doors located at intervals along it. Shrugging, he went to the far end and opened up the first door.

Inside was an enormous four poster bed, and across the room was another door that Duo could only imagine led to a private bathroom. _Must be the master suite. Q'll want that for him and Tro, then._

Backing away, he shut the door and went on to the next one. The room within the former street rat could only describe as _opulent_. The bed was almost as large as the one in the master bedroom, though oddly enough it looked like it had been reinforced for some reason. Around the room, on every available surface rested what must be _hundreds_ of toys, covered with their own patina of dust.

Curious, the teen walked in and over to one of the bookcases, though from the look of it he doubted it had ever held actual _books_. Duo poked gingerly at one of the toys, a miniature tank that looked like it had seen better days. Grimacing, he walked back to the bed and leaned on it with one hand, letting out a small cry as it sank in past his wrist.

_Hell_ _no. _Duo turned and walked out of the room, a frown on his face. It would have been interesting to see what all the toys did, but there was no way he'd ever be able to sleep on something that soft. Growing up on the streets had seen to that. Even now he had trouble getting to sleep on normal beds, let alone things like _that_ monster. He'd toss and turn until early the next morning, then sleep 'til noon to make up for it.

'Course, the others probably just thought he was lazy and liked to sleep in- which actually had a gem of truth in it, come to think of it, but sometimes the fifteen-year-old wished he had a _choice_ when it came to sleeping in. Even just for watching the sun rise, or something.

Unseen, his watcher chuckled soundlessly to himself. Even _now_ no one liked the fat lug's room.

Back in the hall, Duo walked across and opened the next door he came to. Much _better,_ he mused, poking his head through the doorway. Inside, the only furniture was a simple desk and chair, a chest of drawers, and a surprisingly dust-free single bed.

Grinning, he tossed his duffel on the bed and walked back to the head of the stairs. "Hey, Q? I found my room," he called, vaguely hearing the blonde's confirming response. Turning back, the American flopped down on the bed and pulled off his shoes, before curling up and for once falling almost instantly to sleep.

Had the pilot realized there was another person in the room, he never would have let himself relax to that extent, but as it was… He couldn't really be blamed for not knowing. After all, his watcher didn't _want_ to let himself be seen as he gazed down at the sleeping boy.

The watcher sighed, both from jealousy and… relief. Jealousy, for what he was, that the observer wasn't, and because this was _his_ room, but…

Now, maybe, he wouldn't be so alone.

With an ironic, if invisible smile, the watcher turned away. Exerting his will as much as he could, he reached out and flicked off the light switch, plunging the room into darkness before letting himself rest.

* * *

A/N: /sighs/ I seem to be unable to write long chapters for this particular crossover. Dunno why.

Kou: Not to mention you were supposed to work on the _other_ one…

Hey, you'll have to be a bit more specific than just muttering "Work on the HP/GW crossover…" inside my head. Otherwise, it's open to interpretation.

Kou: …

Well, at least I got it out in relatively good time. Oh, and I've vaguely decided it's going to be DuoxHarry, though that's subject to change. I just realized while I was writing this how eerily appropriate it is, the God of Death falling in love with… well, I suppose I better not clarify that just yet, though some of you will probably guess it with this chapter.

* * *

Review Responses:

**Minako**** Nine**: Um, thanks! ;) I hadn't really planned to do that, though… sorry.

And thank you for not telling me to rush this, even if I want to. It's nice to hear that someone wants it to be _good_ instead of wanting it all at once.

**Mithros****: **/blinks/ You know, you almost sound _happy_ about it… But thanks anyway!

**Rav**** Rev**: Nah, no time travel. I find it to be a bit overdone with this particular crossover. I _am_ planning for Duo to have magic, though.

**Shino Ryu**: Really? I thought it seemed kind of rushed… but I'll bow to your undoubtedly superior judgement! /beams/

* * *

Anyway, thanks for supporting me in this from the beginning. The first reviewers for each story always have a special place in my heart…

Kou: Dear God, stop with the sappiness…

/smacks him over the head/ Insensitive baka…


	3. In Which We See A Mystery

Summary, Warnings, and Disclaimer: /sighs/ And, at last, comes the first signs of child abuse. /sighs again/ I suppose it had to show up somewhere… _Why_ can't I write an HP story without Harry being abused?!

* * *

_"For there is such a thing as a broken spirit."___

  
**-****William Godwin**

* * *

Gentle sunlight tumbled through the uncovered window, pooling like golden silk onto the hardwood floor. Slowly, as the hours passed, that fair lake swam across the room, eventually coming to rest on the closed eyelids of the room's sleeping occupant.

Reluctantly, Duo hauled one eye open, glaring blearily at the room in general, though he reserved as especial glare for the pane of glass that had let his tormenter enter. "Fuckin' traitor," he muttered, suppressing a yawn as he sat up. Stumbling only once on the way to the window, he yanked the curtains shut, blocking out the sun.

Stretching his arms above his head, the teenager turned back to the room at large. Still half-asleep, he sank back down to the bed, and rubbed his hands over his eyes in a mostly futile attempt to wake himself up.

Duo had leaned down and was pulling open his duffel when he suddenly stopped, his subconscious screaming that something was different. As he looked around, wildly, he could have sworn someone was watching him…

And then, as suddenly as the feeling had come, it vanished. _What the hell…?!_ Duo wondered, still staring at the empty room. That had _never_ happened before! If there was one thing the former street rat had learned to count on, it was his instincts. And as far as he knew, they'd never been wrong… okay, maybe that once when he shot Heero to protect _Relena_, of all people, but _still_…

But the room was empty. There was no getting around that.

Frowning, Duo leaned back against the headboard, unconsciously fingering the knife that had appeared in his hand like magic. After a couple of minutes, when nothing more out of the ordinary happened, he sighed and bent back down to his duffel, pulling out a fresh change of clothes.

It wasn't until he'd changed, and re-braided his hair, that Duo realized what must have set off the warning bells. The light was off, when he _knew_ he'd gone to sleep without shutting it off.

_Quat must've turned it off while I was asleep_, he mused fondly. Containing another yawn in his hand, Duo stood up, and paused as the heavenly scent of what could only be breakfast reached his nose.

With no qualm whatsoever, the teenager followed the compelling orders of his stomach out the bedroom door.

* * *

The merry sound of rattling cookware filled the kitchen as Quatre labored over breakfast. Not that he minded. He rather enjoyed cooking, in fact. There was really nothing more satisfying than creating a beautiful (in more ways than one) work of art, and then to have others enjoy it to the fullest.

He was checking the omelettes in the pan when abruptly he cried out, one hand going to his heart as his face twisted in pain. Waves of sorrow and guilt rolled over the boy, and he clung desperately to consciousness, to keep his own mind, but the emotions were so _strong_…

Then the Arabian staggered as the flood passed, bracing himself with a hand against the counter. He was barely aware of the tears streaming down his face as he looked around at the empty kitchen. "Allah, what in the world was _that_?" he gasped breathlessly.

It was at that moment that Duo peeked around the kitchen door. "Well, _something_ smells good…" He stopped as he saw Quatre's face. "Quat? What's wrong?"

The blonde glanced around again, but nothing had changed. He couldn't tell Duo the truth- he couldn't stand the possibility of one of his few true friends believing he was insane… again. "Oh, it's just the onions." Quatre waved a hand at the cutting board on the counter, where fortunately he _had_ been chopping onions for the omelettes.

Ignoring the American's skeptical expression, Quatre reached for a dishtowel and dried his face. By the time he lifted the towel away, he was able to paste on a fake, cheery smile. "There. That's much better."

Duo still seemed a bit doubtful, but was willing to go along with it. Grateful, Quatre ran with the opening. "Now, come on. Breakfast is almost ready."

It was a good half hour later, as Duo was cleaning up the empty dishes, that the blonde glanced up at the clock and realized what time it was. "Duo?" he asked, as the braided boy carefully washed the last of the plates and set it in the rack to dry, "What are you doing up so early? Voluntarily, as well?"

Duo blinked at him for a moment, and then shrugged. "I actually got a decent night's sleep for once, that's all. Amazin' what the right bed'll do." He smirked at the puzzled look on the Arabian's face. "Don't worry about it, Q."

He turned to leave, pausing for an instant at the door. "Oh, and Quat? Thanks for turning off the light last night." With that, he was gone.

It was another few seconds before Quatre realized what was wrong with that statement. "But I _didn't_ turn off the light," he murmured in confusion.

* * *

The boy hugged his knees to his chest as tightly as he could in the darkness that was his cupboard. Its tight confines no longer bothered him- they had ceased to be able to hold him years ago.

And as for the darkness… when there was so rarely a light, how could you fear the dark?

The boy was curled up on the cot that was once his, trying his best to stop shaking from reaction. He hadn't _meant_ to hurt the child…

He'd panicked, plain and simple. He never expected the first boy, the one sleeping in his old room, to sense his presence. Not when he had gone so long unnoticed. The periodic swarms of scientists never had, even when he tried to make them see.

None ever did.

Muggles can't see ghosts.

The spirit's head came up as a long-forgotten hope rang through him, remembering how first one boy, then the other, had _known he was there_. Maybe…

He shook his head to make his thoughts slow down, rubbing a transparent hand over once-green eyes. Careful. He had to be careful. They might not be the kind of people he wanted to reveal himself to, even if he was slowly, steadily going insane from the loneliness, and the not-knowing…

He needed to watch them for a bit, first. Make sure they weren't monsters wearing human faces, like his family had been.

_Then_ he'd decide.

* * *

A/N: /sighs/ Yep. Here I am, continuing my tradition of short-chaptered GW/HPs. Well, at least I managed to keep this one from ossifying _totally_…

/growls/ You _know_ you were supposed to be working on the other one. Or failing that, at least on _Know Thyself_.

Yeah, yeah. Snark at me some more when I'm not half-asleep, please. It'll have a much greater affect, I promise you.

Ah, and in response to several reviews, yes, this will be a Duo/Harry story. As for how that's possible, considering Harry's a ghost… Honestly, people these days. It ain't all about sex, yanno! /smirks/ And besides, who said he's going to stay that way?

* * *

Review Responses:

Our thanks to: **bells**, **Cor-chan**, **Firehedgehog**, and **Minako**** Nine.**

**Akua**: /blinks/ That's insightful of you. He isn't technically a ghost, he's a poltergeist. I wasn't expecting to mention that for at least a couple more chapters.

**curlz**** kitsune**: Duo won't meet Harry for a few more chapters.

**curlz****-kitsune**: You're probably the same person, but just in case… /shrugs and grins/ Who said I wouldn't enjoy the carrying out of that little threat?

**Ghost Whisper**: /beams/ My favorite compliment.

**Kanri**** Koneko (Kitty) Sage**: The G-Boys, or at least _all_ the G-Boys, won't find out for a good long while.

**Kenny7**: /grins/ Join the club. Neither have I. I never even heard of it before being introduced to

**Mithros**: /laughs/ I'll agree with the rambling… Though, since when has Harry ever been well-adjusted in one of _my_ stories?

**mystic-Hoshi**: Yes, 'hoshi' means 'star'.

**Rav**** Rev**: 1) Harry.

2) Later.

3) No. He won't need to.

4) see 1.

5) Neither, actually. He isn't evil, of course, but there isn't much he can do against it without help.

6) /snickers/ Ooh, mental image. I'll have to consider that one…

**simpleinsanity**: /is laughing/ Sorry, can't help you there. It wasn't really meant to be creepy, though it _is_ supernatural, so I suppose…

* * *

Read and Review, and all that crap… Scuse me, my pillow's calling…

/snorts/ Don't mind her, she's just a bit woozy. /calls after her/ _Told_ you ya should have taken a nap in Physics!

* * *

17 September 2004


	4. In Which We See A Decision

_Summary, Warnings, and Disclaimer_: /cackles insanely/ Mine, mine, they're all _mine_… /is still cackling as the nice men in white coats drag her away/

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_"When an action is once done, it is right or wrong for ever; no accidental failure of its good or evil fruits can possibly alter that."_

-**William Kingdon (W.K.) Clifford**

---------

Sighing, Duo looked up from his laptop for the first time in an hour as he reviewed OZ's latest troop movements. He stretched his arms above his head and felt a pang of satisfaction go through him at the multiple popping sounds his body made.

A dog barked loudly outside, and the teenager glanced out the window and grinned. Outside, several children were playing some kind of game in the street as the sun went slowly down. Four of them stood in a square, while the others stood in a line beyond them. They had a bright red ball that they bounced between them, and the kids waiting to play alternately cheered and booed depending on what the players did.

Even as he watched, the ball went out of bounds, and rolled to a stop against the safehouse's white picket fence. Duo frowned in puzzlement as all of the kids visibly hesitated to retrieve the toy, quiet a few seconds passing before the oldest gathered his courage and gingerly stepped forward.

And that was when he became aware of _it_ again, the same creepy feeling of being watched that he had felt this morning. This time Duo controlled himself, hiding any outward sign that anything had changed. Instead, the American let his gaze drift casually over to the computer screen. _Gotcha_, he thought, seeing in the screen the pale, blurry reflection of the intruder's face. He slipped a hand down to his boot and palmed one of his many knives, before abruptly spinning. He came out of the desk chair and landed in a crouch, blade at the ready…

Only to be brought up short as an empty room presented itself to his eyes.

"What the _fuck_?" Duo muttered, shocked. Damn it, he'd _seen_ the bastard! It couldn't have taken him more than a fraction of a second to turn around, so how the hell had the guy managed to disappear that quickly? It was as if he had somehow vanished into thin air…

The American shook his head slowly, violet eyes _very_ wide. "I'm going insane…" He fell backwards onto the bed, the knife nearly dropping from his limp hand.

He looked around dazedly for a few seconds, until his eyes fell on the laptop, still sitting quietly on the desk. Then he was up again, as a few short steps carried him over to the computer.

With brisk, efficient movements, Duo brought up his email. He typed out the safehouse's address, ran it through the laptop's Perfect Soldier-designed encryptment program, and then sent it to the three absentee pilots.

His task completed, the braided boy shut down his computer and fled the room.

---------

Quatre was watching a news program when he slipped into the den. Duo settled next to him on the couch, startling the blonde. The American murmured an apology, and for a few minutes watched the glowing television with him.

"Hey, Quat?" he finally asked, as the news went to a commercial break. "You said something last night about scientists studyin' this place…"

"Yes?" The Arabian gave him a curious frown, obviously wondering what he was on about now.

"Well…" Uncharacteristically, Duo hesitated, and the small blonde's curiosity instantly turned to concern.

"Duo, what is it?" he asked, aquamarine eyes intent on his friend.

"The scientists… did they ever mention anything… well, _odd_, about this place?" The teenager's hand tugged on the end of his braid.

The billionaire blinked. "Like what?"

If anything, Duo looked even more uncomfortable. "Um, you know, just… odd things." He winced at the blonde's raised eyebrow. "…I was just up in my room, an' saw some neighborhood kids out playin' in the street. Ta make a long story short, they wouldn't come near the house."

"Well, it _is_ private property, and very old," Quatre said logically. "Their parents have probably drummed it into their heads since birth that they're not to trespass."

The American shook his head, frowning. "If they were just reluctant ta come in the yard, yeah, that'd make sense, but they weren't just reluctant, they were _terrified_. What the hell could have caused _that_?"

Quatre looked thoughtful. "Well… there _were_ a few wild accusations from one scientist, a couple of decades ago, that the house was haunted. Ostensibly, there were a few instances of objects being moved with no apparent cause." He shrugged. "It was most likely a lab assistant having some fun with his or her supervisor. There's no such thing as ghosts."

Duo started to open his mouth, then paused and looked away, unsatisfied. "I know, Quat, but… this place gives me the willies."

Surprisingly, the blonde nodded in agreement, and for a few minutes more they sat in silence as the TV blared.

"I've sent the others the address," the braided boy finally said quietly. "Hopefully, they'll be here soon."

"Good." If there was no small amount of relief in the Arabian's voice, neither of them commented on it.

---------

He'd been _seen_!

It was all he could do not to weep for joy, even though he hadn't meant for it to happen. He'd spotted his reflection in the computer screen a split second after the strange boy had, and nearly hadn't made it safely into invisibility in time.

Still, though, the boy had _seen_ him! He was a wizard, or at least a Squib!

Harry smiled, as he curled up comfortably, floating an inch above the plush chair and only a few feet away from the two teenagers watching the telly. They didn't know he was there, of course- being dead _did_ have a few advantages, even if they didn't come close to balancing out the disadvantages.

Still smiling, the ghost of the Boy-Who-No-Longer-Lived studied the face of the beautiful longhaired boy. He remembered the genuine smile that had lit up that face when the boy- Duo, according to his eavesdropping- had seen the children playing in the street.

That was the moment Harry had decided that he would show himself, when he had seen that smile. His family had never smiled like that when they saw something as innocent as children playing; Aunt Petunia would be more likely to keep a sharp on them to make sure they didn't trample her precious flowers. The flowers that _he_ had planted, and that _he_ kept alive over the burning summers, so he still didn't see by what right she had to claim them…

He shook himself. That was old news, the distant past. It was no longer important, and he knew that, but sometimes he found himself thinking that he was still alive and sixteen, when chores were important, to appease his family and dispel unwanted thoughts. It was as if there would be no Death Eater raid, no burst of green light, no moment of despair _knowing_ he had failed them, failed them all…

Again Harry pulled himself out of the past. All that was years ago, he no longer knew how many, and was very close to not caring. With a silent snarl, he thrust himself through the back of the chair and into the darkness of his cupboard, barely noticing the fact he nearly went through the blonde as well, making him shiver from the sudden chill.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow, for good or for ill, he would show himself to this _Duo_. And what would come… would come.

Bitterly, he snorted. Hell, it wasn't like anything could _hurt_ him now anyway…

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A/N: Aaaand, it's done. /sighs in relief/ Thank God… Just a chapter of _Serpent's Riddle_ to go, and then I can get back to my main fics…

Aren't y'all happy about that?

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_**Review Responses**_

_Our thanks to:_ **E.A.V.**, **Firehedgehog**, **Kate Maxwell**, **Larail**, **lilmatchgirl007**, **Shino Ryu**, **shroom**, and **Tanya the Insane & Aristarchus the Muse**.

**Akua**: Those are most _definitely_ the right questions to be asking. Yes, Duo is a wizard, but I haven't decided about Q-kun yet.

**Cor-chan**: /glares and rubs her bruises/ That hurt, yanno…

/sighs/ I know. I'm trying to stretch the chapters out a bit more, and I think I got this one to accept a couple hundred more words, but it's slow going.

**Kimpatsu no Hoseki**: Does that answer you question a bit?

**mercurialgreen**: /grins/ Three cheers for alternate pairings!

**Mithros**: /bows thankfully/ I just can't stand the way some other authors throw two genres together without thinking about how they'd fit together, or interact, so I do my best to keep myself from doing the same thing.

**OOMaxwellDemonOo**: /laughs/ You do that to stories, too? I generally keep my imagination to imagining slashy innuendoes in het fics, though.

/smiles dreamily/ Hair…

That really happened to you?

**Rav Rev**: The actual answer is a version of number five- I got so busy with my other stories I didn't get around to this one for a while. Though number six happened on another story…

Let's see… one- that would take far too long to explain here, and will be in a future chapter anyway. Two- ghosts have the ability to go completely invisible, as evidenced by the fact Peeves believes Harry under the invisibility cloak was the Bloody Baron, in the books. Three- mostly no, and yes. Four- yes; they'll be arriving in a few chapters. Five- not from Harry, but other than that… well, they _are_ Gundam pilots. And trouble magnets…

**SidhePrincessAislinn**: Not necessarily, not just because I've never seen how that pairing can work unless Duo makes it three, but because I don't see the need to have every single character paired off by the end of the story like so many authors do.

**simpleinsanity**: /laughs/ Not that particular scenario, but I _have_ been creeped out a few times by a sudden cloud passing over the sun while I was reading something scary…

I don't know if all the pilots will be wizards- that seems kind of unlikely to me. They _will_ all be able to see Harry eventually, though.

**Skeren Dreamera**: /laughs/ Just lucky, I guess…

**Wren Truesong**: /bows/ Thank you, my lady, for your understanding…

It _is_ true that Harry died a violent death, which partially anchored him to the house, but mostly it's the fact that it was _here_ he died. There'll be a twist, though- I subscribe to the Tanya Huff belief about ghosts, if that means anything to you.

/shudders/ Frankly, though, I believe it could have been worse. I don't know if Muggles can become ghosts, but if _they_ had, and were trapped in the same house with him…

---------

I tried to update this from home last night, but my floppies got corrupted, so now I'm sitting in front of a school computer. Enjoy anyway, though. Or else! /glares/

---------

8 December 2004


	5. In Which We See A Pronounced Lack Of Pla...

**Warnings and Disclaimers**: Hmm… okay, I can't think of anything witty to say at the moment, so just go read the bloody chapter.

* * *

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Duo groaned and rolled over, burying his face in his pillow as he automatically swept an arm past where his alarm clock usually sat. His arm met only air, though, and reluctantly the longhaired teenager opened his eyes to greet the noontime sun.

It was only then that he realized the annoying sound wasn't coming from his alarm clock, since he hadn't set it the night before. Instead, his bleary eyes fell on his laptop, sitting innocuously on the rather plain desk in the corner even as it beeped obnoxiously. Duo cursed the infernal machine under his breath as he sat up.

He was just about to pull back the covers when his barely-awake mind caught up with his body. He froze and glanced around, half-expecting something odd to happen. Every time he'd felt that odd presence, it was in this room, and Duo was starting to regret choosing it as his own. Hell, he almost hadn't been able to go to sleep in it last night!

It didn't seem like the guy, or whatever it was, was going to make an appearance that morning, though, and Duo slowly got up. The laptop stopped beeping as soon as he turned it on. The reason for the noise turned out to be several emails from the other pilots; Trowa and Wufei both said they'd arrive at the safehouse the next day, and a message from Heero stated that he had a mission to complete first, so he couldn't predict when he'd be able to join them.

It was with a profound sense of relief that Duo shut down the computer. He took a few minutes to throw on some clothes over his boxers, then bounced cheerfully down the stairs to share the good news with Quatre.

He again found the little blonde poking around the kitchen, searching through various cupboards for something. "Hey, Q, guess what?" The American leaned against a counter and hoisted himself up.

"What?" Quatre asked absently, closing yet another cupboard door.

"The guys say they'll be here tomorrow!" Duo stopped and reconsidered, as the Arabian looked over at him with a delighted smile. "Okay, Tro and the Wu-man say they'll be here. Hee-chan said he wasn't sure," he corrected.

If anything, Quatre looked even happier. And why not? He'd get to be with his boyfriend again.

"So, what's up?" Duo asked curiously, still perched up on the counter.

Quatre sighed. "I have a mission I have to leave for in about twenty minutes." He closed the cupboard door. "The house isn't as well-stocked as I would have liked. I _was_ going to go to the store and pick up a few things, but now…"

"Want me to go?" his friend offered, sliding down.

The blonde smiled gratefully. "Oh, would you? What we have now would be fine for just the two of us, but with the others coming…"

Duo nodded, understanding what he meant. With five teenage boys in the house, food wouldn't be sticking around long. "Do ya know what I need to get, or should I play it by ear?"

Quatre quickly rattled off a moderately long list of items, one that the former thief committed to memory. "Right," he finally said, sure he'd gotten them all. "I'll go ahead an' go now, then. When're you gonna be back?"

"I shouldn't be gone long," the billionaire replied. "As far as I can tell, it's just a simple reconnaissance mission."

"A fly-by?"

Quatre nodded. "I should be back in an hour or two at the most."

Duo grinned. "All right. I'll let you go get ready, then." He started to leave the kitchen, then paused as a thought occurred to him. "Er, Quat? What are we using to get around?"

The teenager smiled again, amused. "I called one of my sisters last night and asked her to arrange for two cars to be delivered. They arrived this morning."

Duo blinked at him for a moment, then nodded uncertainly. "Right…"

_Damn_, he reflected as he stepped out the front door and saw the two nondescript cars sitting in the driveway. _I must've been _really_ out of it…_

Well, that'd teach him to stay up till all hours of the night worrying about the bogeyman.

* * *

Upstairs, in his old room, Harry watched in horror as the boy on whom all his hopes rested drove away. "_No…_" He tried to reach out to him, to call him back, and flinched as the wards on the house violently threw him back with an angry spark. 

Squeezing his eyes shut to keep any phantasmal tears from escaping, the former wizard slumped down on the windowsill. Too late… always too late…

With a quiet, strangled moan of despair, he rose into the air and floated over to the bed. There he curled into a tight ball, his incorporeal form shuddering with the force of the sobs he held in.

He stayed like that for a long time, before an incredibly irritating _beeping_ startled him out of his misery and self-pity. The ghost looked over at his old desk and saw the longhaired boy's computer, sitting there making that horrible noise. Harry stared at it, wide-eyed, and eventually started to chuckle, and then laugh outright, even as his ears began to ache from the constant clamor.

"I'm… an… _idiot_…" he gasped out in between his almost hysterical bursts of laughter. Duo had left his stuff behind. He was coming _back_!

Slowly the laughter subsided, lessening to from a half-insane cackle to quiet giggles interspersed with the occasional guffaw. Then silence again reigned in the room, as the ghostly boy lay sprawled on the bed, staring up at the ceiling with a ridiculously happy grin on his face.

He was coming back…

* * *

Duo grimaced as he juggled the keys in one hand, the other occupied with the first of the half a dozen paper grocery bags that awaited his convenience in the car. Okay, maybe he should have waited to start bringing in the groceries until _after_ he'd unlocked the front door… 

He grinned as he finally got the recalcitrant door open, and took the few steps necessary to get to the kitchen and deposit the bag on the counter.

And now for the rest…

* * *

It was all Harry could do to keep from waltzing about the room in joy. As it was, if he'd still had a solid body he'd have been worried about wearing a hole through the floor with his constant pacing as he tried to ignore the increasing annoying noise coming from the desk. Duo was back, he hadn't wasted his chance after all… 

Yet, anyway. The long-dead teenager paused his unending movement as he realized he still needed to get up the courage to actually _talk_ to the kid. Damn it…

Sighing, Harry floated over to the window and watched as the other boy made another trip out to the car. He _had_ to do it today- he'd sworn, hadn't he? Merlin, where was his famed Gryffindor courage when he needed it?

He frowned and pulled the curtains shut, concentrating on the motion so that his hand didn't simply pass right through the fabric. Turning back to the desk and its bothersome burden, the ghost peered at it thoughtfully. Maybe it would help to distract him if he tried to do something about that monstrosity…?

* * *

Outside, Duo paused and glanced towards the house with a puzzled frown. Odd, but he could have sworn he'd seen movement out of the corner of his eye… 

The American shrugged, and closed the trunk lid. He was probably just imagining things, he thought as he carried the last of the bags into the house.

* * *

Harry thoughtfully reached out to touch the laptop. He didn't have a clue how it worked, so he couldn't just shut it off. He snorted. Hell, with his luck he'd probably give it a virus or something. Who knows how muggle technology would react when used by a decidedly _magical_ ghost? 

He was probably right, in that he shouldn't try to change anything without knowing what the heck he was doing, but he made one mistake. It was a good idea not to mess with it…

But _not_ a good idea to be thinking so hard to himself that he forgot he was leaning all his weight against something small and portable. Which he discovered when the laptop fell to the floor with a loud crash.

* * *

Below in the kitchen, Duo had just placed the bag of groceries on the counter when a clatter from upstairs jerked his head up and around. "What the hell…?" he muttered, pulling his gun from its holster on his back, beneath his jacket. Carefully he made his way to the base of the stairs, checking each room cautiously before continuing on to the next. 

The stairs were a challenge, though. After a minute of staring at them and wondering how he could get up them without exposing himself to fire, Duo concluded that he couldn't. And so, to minimize the amount of time he was in the open, he took the stairs at a nearly silent rush.

To say the least, he was surprised when he reached the second floor without incident. Once there, he frowned as he realized his room was dark, even though it was still day out. Then he realized that the drapes had been pulled over the window, and knew that must have been the movement he'd seen from outside.

Taking a deep breath, Duo got ready. With a quick movement he reached inside and flicked on the lights, while pointing the gun in his other hand into the room. His caution was justified, as he saw a sheepish-looking boy sitting on his bed with his hands raised.

"Er, hello… sorry about the noise, but…"

Duo's jaw dropped. It wasn't the presence of the boy that shocked him- he'd known someone else was in the house, after all.

It was the fact that he could see the wall through the boy's transparent head.

* * *

A/N: /blinks/ Wow, I really wasn't expecting to finish this so soon… But then, I had incentive. I've been wanting to write that last scene from the beginning… 

Before anyone comments on how… variable Harry is in this chapter, let me confirm it out loud: Harry is parked well on the road to insanity. I have yet to decide if that'll ever change.

And in response to a question, Voldemort is long dead.

* * *

Our thanks to: **Akua**, **Bunch-o-Nuts**, **Cattibrie393**, **E.A.V.**, **Firehedgehog**, **Kaaera**, **keira**, **Kenny7**, **LassyD** (actually, I seem to be unable to work on the main fics now… /sweatdrops/), **Raisha**** Bregail**, and **Y401-F4N**.

* * *

6 January 2005


	6. In Which We See A Deficiency In Sanity

**Warnings and Disclaimer:** _I'm afraid I need to claim all bits of insanity, 'cause I'd probably be sued if I tried to shove the blame onto someone else, but the rest isn't mine._

* * *

The world was a neat, orderly place, if not necessarily a nice one. In fact, it could be downright mean. But in the world, everything made sense. Effect followed cause, Relena followed Heero- every event had a logical explanation somewhere behind it. 

At least, that was how Duo had seen it, his entire life. You were born, you survived as best you could- the streets were a very good teacher for that particular lesson- and then you died.

Except the thing currently sitting on his bed, staring at him through thick-framed glasses kind of made all that go flying out the window.

"Er... Are you all right?" the pale boy asked with a shy smile, running a hand through hair that would give Heero's a run for his money on messiness. "You look like you've seen a-"

"Don't you _dare_ finish that sentence," Duo interrupted absently, still in shock as he lowered the gun. Why the hell not, after all? It wasn't like it was going to do him any good...

The ghost had to stifle a laugh behind a hand. "I'm sorry," he finally said, his precisely British accent somehow making the situation even more surreal. "I knew it was cliché, but I just couldn't resist..." He floated up off the bed, closer to the stunned boy by the door.

Duo automatically took a step back as the ghost came to a stop just in front of him. "But... you really _can_ see me," he murmured, a sense of wonder clear on his transparent features. "I thought maybe you could, but I wasn't sure..."

"W-why wouldn't I be able to see you?" the American managed to stammer out. He could hardly believe he was actually _talking_ to the thing. It had to be a trick of some kind, maybe a hologram. Or a hallucination...

Yeah, that was it. Duo felt a profound sense of relief fill him as he came to what must be the correct solution. The reflection on his monitor, that constant feeling that he was being watched... simply symptoms of his descent into insanity. And he'd just hit rock bottom.

The ghost actually looked depressed at the question, despite being only a figment of his imagination. "Because not everyone can," he said sadly, further confirming the conviction in Duo's mind that he'd gone crazier than a bedbug. "In fact, you're the first person who has since I died."

Somehow, that wasn't surprising...

Duo was about to ask how long ago that had been (in for a penny, in for a pound, after all) when the sound of a car pulling into the drive distracted him. His eyes widened as he realized who it must be. "Quatre," he muttered out loud.

The apparition drifted over to the window and, even though ghosts were supposed to be non-corporeal, nudged aside a curtain to study the little blonde. Duo watched the emotions pass over his face, uncertainty the foremost.

Finally he nodded, apparently having come to a decision. "Tell him... tell him want you want," the ghost said, turning to look at the teenager. He pushed up his glasses with a nervous finger. "I... don't know if he can see me, though. So... be careful."

His speech concluded, he faded away before Duo's eyes, until the Gundam pilot was utterly alone in the room.

-

Quatre hummed cheerfully, if rather tiredly as he pushed open the front door. It wasn't often that a mission went truly wrong, but it was still always nice when one went well.

"Duo?" he called out curiously. The house was far too quiet to be holding the loud American. No music blaring, no TVs left on... If it wasn't for the second car in the drive, he'd almost have wondered if Duo wasn't back from the supermarket yet.

He peeked into the kitchen. No, there were the bags of groceries, still sitting on the counter...

"You called, Q?"

Quatre squeaked, spinning around to see Duo standing at the foot of the stairs. He stared at the braided boy as his heart raced. "Duo, have you ever considered wearing bells?" he asked once his pulse had slowed down a bit.

"Where would the fun in that be?" the pilot automatically quipped back, stepping further into the hall. "I wouldn't be able ta make 'Fei have heart attacks anymore."

The billionaire chuckled. "Of course..." His laughter died away as he spotted the gun in Duo's hand. "What-?"

The teenager blinked down at the weapon for a moment, as though surprised to see it. "Oops." He put it back inside the holster tucked into the back of his pants and pulled his shirt down to hide it. "Thought I heard something upstairs, went to check it out," he offered in explanation.

"And did you find anything?" Quatre asked, his sharp eyes catching the ever-so-slight paleness of his friend's face.

For a second, Quatre thought the boy was about to say something, but then Duo shrugged. "Just my nerves playing tricks on me. This house..."

The Arabian nodded, though more than his space heart told him that the pilot was keeping secrets. "I understand," he said mildly. Keeping secrets or not, he knew Duo would never do anything to jeopardize his four fellow pilots. If it was something important, he'd tell them.

And besides, the house really _was_ creepy enough to make you imagine things.

-

A long time later, Duo lay on his bed beneath the sheets, staring up at the dark ceiling. There had been no sign of the ghost since that brief meeting, and he was beginning to wonder...

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. What was he thinking? Of _course_ he'd imagined the entire thing!

Still...

Feeling utterly ridiculous, Duo sat up. "Um... hello?" he whispered into the darkness, putting his bare arms around his knees. "Are... are you there?"

For a moment, there was nothing. Then the temperature of the room seemed to drop a couple of degrees as a voice whispered in his ear. "I'm always here."

Duo yelped and dove off the bed in a tangle of sheets. Gravity decided to introduce him to the wooden floor with a painful thud, and soon after the formerly silent night was filled with curses.

Eventually the pilot wound down, until he finally fell silent and looked up at the cause of his aggravation. The ghost was hovering over the bed, staring with wide eyes, and Duo had the feeling that if he'd had a body, he'd be blushing red enough to put a fire engine to shame.

The braided teenager couldn't help but be a little disappointed, really. He would have expected his mind to come up with a... well, a more _unusual _hallucination. Except for his transparency, lack of any color, and the gentle glow that he gave off, bathing the room with a silvery light, you wouldn't have looked twice at him if you passed him on the street.

Well, actually parents might have held their children's hands more tightly and gone about their business just a little bit faster, Duo reconsidered as he looked at the ill-fitting clothes the apparition wore. They were obviously secondhand, and in any overprotective mother's mind would scream "hoodlum!"

Kind of like the clothes he'd worn as a kid on the streets. Probably why his subconscious had picked them to clothe his very own hallucination.

The ghost blinked owlishly under his steady regard. "Er... oops?" he offered to the boy lying on the floor.

Duo carefully untangled the sheets from around his legs and stood up. "..._Don't _do that again," he ordered. "Ya almost gave me a heart attack, and then I'd be hanging around haunting this dump with you."

The pale boy's lips twitched, but he nodded. "Sorry."

The American sighed and grabbed his sheets. "Forget it." He tossed them out over the bed so they'd lay flat, and did his best not to wince as they passed right through the ghost. "So, who are you, anyway?"

The spirit settled down so that he was perched on the edge of the bed. "My name's Harry. Harry Potter. And you're Duo?"

By this time nothing was going to surprise Duo, least of all that a figment of his imagination knew his name, so he simply nodded. "Duo Maxwell," he added, completing the introductions. The longhaired teenager plopped back down on the bed and leaned back against the pillows to stare at the ghost some more.

Who fidgeted under his regard. "Um... You're taking this rather well..." he started nervously.

Duo shrugged. "So I'm insane. Big deal. People have been tellin' me that for years."

The ghost looked at him oddly. "You're not insane."

"Yes, I am. I'm talking to a hallucination," Duo pointed out. "You don't get much crazier than that. Well, unless ya start eating people on your way to world domination."

"I am not a hallucination!" Oh, yes, the ghost was most _definitely _offended.

"Oh?" Duo gave him a skeptical look. "Why am I the only one who can see you, then?"

He frowned, pushing up his glasses. "I never said you were the only one who could, just the only one who has so far. There should be plenty of people who can, unless something's gone _really _wrong, but none of them ever came here."

"So I'm just the first?" Despite his doubts over the entire matter, Duo couldn't help but be just a little bit curious to find out just what kind of strange puzzle his mind had slapped together. "What's so different about me? What do ya need to see ghosts, anyway? Bad life insurance?"

The ghost looked uncomfortable. "Well... You have to have magic."

* * *

A/N: -looks uncomfortable herself- Erm... I'm kind of grounded from the computer right now, so I shouldn't be doing this, but I wanted to keep up my whole 'post every two weeks' deal, so... Here you go. Cross your fingers and hope I don't get in trouble...

* * *

_Our sincerest gratitude to_ **A lilmatchgirl**, **blackrosebunny**(Well, I'm pretty decided on Duo/Harry, but other than that… -shrugs-), **Bluespark**(-grins- I try…), **Cattiebrie393**, **Ciupacapra** (-beams- Thanks), **Curlz****-Kitsune**, **E.A.V.**, **Fate**, **Firehedgehog**, **insanechildfanfic**, **J-chan8**, **Kimpatsu**** no Hoseki**, **Larail**, **LassyD** (-chuckles- I'll admit, in some ways this is one of my favorites, too…), **Lost-Remembrance**, **Minako** **Nine**, **Mithros** (Can't do anything about them? Says who? –smirks-), **Rav** **Rev** (-looks annoyed- You know, you're getting way too good at guessing where this is going… The answer's yes, but to all or one I'm not saying), **P.L.S.**, and **Under** **the** **Old** **Oak** **Tree** (-sighs- I'm afraid I have no knowledge of the subject whatsoever, so I'll trust you on the matter) _for reviewing.

* * *

_

2 March 2005


	7. In Which We See A Zest For Research

**Warnings and Disclaimers:** _Hamlet_ is the brainchild of William Shakespeare, whom I do not claim to be. Sniffs disdainfully Do I _look_ bald to you?

* * *

Duo stared blankly at him. "Magic," he repeated. 

The ghost's cheeks flushed silver. "Yes, magic," he replied rather crossly. "I know how that sounds, but it's real. And you can see me, so that means you're either a wizard or a Squib."

"A what?" The pilot had never heard such a ridiculous word in his life.

"A non-magical child born to magical parents. A Squib can't use magic himself, but can use enchanted items and see magical things that muggles can't. Muggles are people who don't have magic at all," Harry hastened to add at the American's frown.

Duo stayed silent for a long moment. This was a lot more complex than he'd expected from his subconscious. He was almost impressed... "Ya don't really expect me to believe this, do you?" he finally asked.

The ghost sighed. "Hoped, yes. Expected... no, not really. Not without proof, which I myself can't give you, and I don't know if I should trust you with it yourself."

Duo blinked, then sniggered. "Wonderful. The figment of my imagination doesn't trust me..."

Harry glared at him. "Oh, for... I am _not_ a figment of your bloody imagination!" He got up off the bed and started to pace, a strange sight given that his feet were floating about an inch off the ground. "For all I know, _I'm_ the crazy one, and _you're _the figment!"

The braided teenager twitched an eyebrow. "I don't know, ya look sane..." he commented. "Can't say I'm the best judge of that, though."

Harry snorted. "I've been trapped in this bedamned house for Merlin knows how many years. Of _course_ I'm not entirely sane."

Duo resisted the question for as long as he could, knowing it wasn't even in the same _country_ as politically correct, but in the end it popped out under its own volition. "How did you die?"

"...I was murdered," the ghost answered sadly, pausing by the window to gaze almost sightlessly out. The teenager could see the glow of the street lamp outside through his body.

"Oh..." Duo grimaced to himself. Dammit, the kid was a hallucination, he should _not _be feeling sorry for hurting his feelings! But still, tendrils of guilt wound their way through his guts as he saw the way thin shoulders tensed, and then slumped as the translucent figure stared out at the night. "I'm... sorry," he added quietly, twisting the bed sheets nervously around his fingers.

Harry turned and looked at him with something akin to surprise. "It's nothing," he replied after a moment. "It... happened a long time ago."

Damn his curiosity... "How long ago?"

The ghost bit his lip. "Er... I don't know. What year is it?"

"A.C. 195," Duo answered instantly, and was puzzled when the other boy frowned. "What is it?"

"A.C.?" he asked with some hesitation.

"After Colony Era."

If anything, the ghost looked even blanker. "_Colony_?"

Duo stared at him. _Oh, you have _got _to be fucking kidding me..._ "Yeah. Colony as in the Lagrange Colonies. You know, the really big space stations? Population somewhere around ten million when you add all five of 'em together?"

Harry choked. "_Space stations!_" He flickered, as though unable to maintain his cohesion through the shock. The flickering continued for a few seconds, before the spirit settled down again. "What-" he started to say, then had to clear his throat and start again. "What's A.C. in relation to Anno Domini?"

Duo frowned. "Christ. Um, I think the Colony Era began... 2089, 2090? Sometime around then, anyway. Why?" he asked as the ghost dimmed again, until there was just the faintest of silhouettes present. "When did you die?"

Even that faint evanescence vanished, and the American winced as he realized he must have scared the spirit away. But then a quiet murmur reached his ears:

_"July 31st, 1996. My birthday..."_

Duo was left sitting alone in the empty room, staring at shadowed, pitiless walls as he pondered those words.

-

The next morning he slept till almost noon, having stayed up nearly an hour after Harry had disappeared, half-hoping, half-afraid the apparition would come back. Now he slumped at the kitchen table, blinking bleary eyes as a bemused Quatre made him a cup of strong coffee. Soon the blonde was sitting across from him, sipping his tea.

As a companionable silence filtered through the kitchen, Duo went over in his mind everything that he could remember from the conversation the night before. A couple of his questions had been answered, but they were nothing to the multitudes spawned. But even so, he kept coming back to one thing, or rather two.

Last night, the ghost, or "figment of his imagination", had told him two concrete facts: his name, and the date of his death. To find out whether he was crazy or not, all Duo had to do was do a little research.

But...he had to admit, at least to himself, that he was a little bit afraid. If it turned out he really _was_ crazy, beyond the boundaries of what was entailed in being a Gundam pilot, then the reasonable, _responsible _thing to do would be to turn himself in for a psych evaluation. The results of which would most likely be his permanent relief from active duty.

There was always the choice of hiding what was going on in his head, too, but he had a feeling that if he did hide this schizophrenia, or whatever it was, it would quickly spiral out of his control. And what if by hiding, he somehow managed to put the others pilots in danger? Duo didn't think he could ever forgive himself if one of them was even hurt because of him. And then there was that third possibility, the one that he didn't really want to consider:

What if he _wasn't _crazy? What if the whole mess, ghosts, magic, and all, was _real?_

"Duo? Are you all right?" Quatre asked, frowning at him. "You seem kind of... distracted."

_No shit..._ Duo gave him a rather weak grin. "Just... didn't get as much sleep as I should've." He fiddled with the mug in his hands for a few seconds. "Um, Q? Remember when we were on the shuttle, talkin' 'bout this place?"

The Arabian nodded, looking curious. "Well... Did you ever mention when it happened? The date, I mean?" First he had to make sure he hadn't already _known_ what had happened.

Quatre chewed on his lip as he tried to remember. "Not that I recall," he said finally.

"What about names?" Duo asked, trying to hide his anxiety.

The blonde shook his head. "No. Nothing like that came up." He frowned. "Why?"

The American didn't answer directly, instead staring off to the side. "...The family that lived here, do... do you remember their names?"

"Not really. I think their family name started with a 'D'." Quatre watched with concern as his friend's hands clenched to white-knuckled fists and his shoulders slumped, as violet eyes dropped unhappily to the table. Then a flash of memory struck him. "The nephew had a different last name, though."

Instantly the American's chestnut head came up, and Duo stared at him. Quatre couldn't help a flash of worry at the almost wild look in his eyes. "Q, do you still have the research you did?" he asked slowly, deliberately relaxing his hands. "I... I think I need to see it. To confirm something."

Quatre just nodded, rising from the table and leaving his teacup where it sat. He hurried upstairs to retrieve his laptop, trying to push aside his confusion and worries. Whatever was going on, he'd make sure Duo explained later, but what was more important at the moment was to get that look _out_ of his friend's eyes.

-

Once again Harry was huddled in a ball in his cupboard, taking solace in the unbroken darkness within. It removed all distractions but sound, which the wallpaper-covered wood dampened anyway, making it an almost perfect place to think.

And to brood, which was also a rather apt description for what he was doing now.

Harry knew he wasn't the best at math- he'd been removed from normal schooling at the tender age of ten, and the only remotely math-related subject Hogwarts taught was Arithmancy, which he'd never taken anyway. But even he could add, and no matter how he did so, the equation always came out the same:

Three hundred years. Three hundred _bloody _years.

That refrain carried him unnoticed through the sound of one person coming lightly down the stairs, but even the knowledge that he'd been dead for three centuries could insulate him from the second, much heavier pair. Blinking unnecessarily, Harry turned his eyes upwards as he wondered what in the world was going on out there.

-

Quatre set the laptop on the kitchen table and flipped it open as Duo plugged it into the wall. "What do you need to see?" he asked, hitting the 'on' button.

"Two things," Duo answered, pulling a chair around until he could see the screen, then sitting. "The names of the residents, and the date of their deaths."

The blonde nodded. "Easy enough." He tapped away at the keys, bringing up the pertinent screen in just a little more than a minute. A minute that Duo spent nearly vibrating in his chair as he fought the urge to get up and pace.

"Here we are..." Quatre murmured. "Autopsy reports for... Vernon Dursley, homeowner, Petunia Dursley, spouse, Dudley Dursley, son..." The braided teenager leaned forward in anticipation, and read the last name for himself in a quiet, awed whisper.

"Harry Potter, nephew. Holy _shit_..." Violet eyes were very wide as he stared at the screen. "And the date?"

Quatre navigated through the report. "Here. Estimated time of death for all parties... 12:30 a.m., July 31st-"

"-In the year of our Lord 1996," Duo finished, feeling a grin spread over his face. "Christ... 'There are more things in heaven and earth...'"

The Arabian frowned. "'Than are dreamt of in your philosophy', but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Lots. 'Specially considerin' what happens in the first act."(1) Still grinning, Duo reached over and gave an uncomprehending Quatre a brief hug. "The good news," he said, pulling away, "is that, despite what 'Fei might say, I'm not crazy."

"I never thought you were..." Quatre started to protest, but stopped at the American's knowing look. "Well... not _that_ kind of crazy," he admitted with a blush, and Duo couldn't help a laugh.

The billionaire frowned as he detected the slightest note of hysteria in the braided pilot's high spirits. "Duo?" he asked, worried. "What's the bad news?"

Duo looked at him for a moment, and the grin faded, leaving him uncharacteristically serious. "I don't know if it's _bad_, really," he qualified, "but... let's just say life and a few other things just got a lot more complicated."

* * *

(1) For those of you who have never read _Hamlet_, in the first act Prince Hamlet confronts his father's ghost, who demands vengeance for his murder.

* * *

A/N: And done! Now, what to work on until school's out... Walks away muttering to herself

Can't really think of anything I want to say, beyond that Q seems to be finding out ahead of schedule. Now I get to work it out all over again...

**Error Fixed:** Sorry 'bout that, guys. That second date happens to be _my_ birthday, and since they're in the same month, I mixed them up by accident.

* * *

_Our most sincere gratitude to_ **Akua** (blinks By any chance had you just had sugar when you reviewed? Or caffeine? Grins), **A**** lilmatchgirl** (First, if an actual physical presence was needed to fall in love, Match_dot_com would be out of business. Second… who says he's going to _stay_ that way? Smirks), **blackrosebunny**, **Bluespark** (I _think_ it's possible… I'm fairly sure I've done it at some point. And as to how he died… flashback coming up. Not quite Voldemort. I'm interpreting the Prophecy.), **Bunch-o-Nuts**, **Cattiebrie393**, **chys**, **Cor****-chan **(Oh, you know, the usual. Pissy parent, combined with lazy kid…), **DarrkKatt** (grins On the contrary, I'm most flattered), **E.A.V.**, **Fate**, **Firehedgehog**, **jordan**, **Kaaera** (blinks …That's… almost exactly my situation with Gundam Wing. Do you think that's the case with all of us? Never seen it, love it anyway? And as far as I can tell, there's no official date as to when the calendar switched from AD to AC. We're all just guessing), **LassyD** (hugs), **Lise** (nods I know what you mean. It's so hard finding an HP/GW that has a plausible connection, instead of merely having the G-boys be yanked into the past or something. Blushes Thank you!), **Mithros** (blinks You know, you're good at this…), **Rieina**** Bara** (What took me so long would be the fifteen or so other stories I'm working on…), **Shino Ryu**, **Toki Mirage**, _and_ **Wren Truesong** (returns the hug Not needed, but thanks anyway. And you'd better believe it!) _for__ reviewing.

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_

3 May 2005


	8. In Which We See A Suspension of Belief

**Warnings and Disclaimers: **sighs The complete and utter annihilation of my plotline…

* * *

Confused aquamarine eyes were fixed on his friend, as he tried to comprehend what the American could possibly be talking about. "More complicated, how?" he asked, choosing his words with care as he glanced again at the information on the screen. If the almost-hysteria Duo had shown earlier had been frightening, this intense solemnity was, in its way, even more so.

The longhaired boy leaned forward in his chair, his eyes bright. "That scientist guy was right, Quatre."

Now he _knew_ something was seriously wrong. Duo _never_ called him, or anyone, by their proper names. "Right about _what_?"

Duo grinned. "The house. It's haunted."

For a long moment, Quatre didn't speak. Then he closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath. "Duo," he finally said, opening his eyes again, "please don't play jokes like that. You had me really worried!"

The braided pilot simply looked at him, not with a frown, but his customary grin was nowhere to be seen, either. "I'm not joking, Q. I kinda wish I was. Things were already complicated enough without tossing_ this_ in the mess."

The blonde sighed. "Duo, there are no such things as ghosts."

"That's what I thought, at first," the American half-agreed with a little nod. "I thought he was a hallucination." He stopped, pursing his lips. "Damn. I'm gonna have to apologize for that." Duo shook his head. "But the info he gave me checked out, about his name and all, so..."

The teenager stared blankly across the kitchen, and his friend realized he was still more than a little in shock. "He's _real_."

-

Harry poked his head out through the side of the cupboard and looked around at the empty hallway. Whatever had been happening before seemed to be over, though he could hear the sound of quiet conversation coming from the kitchen.

Cautiously, he stepped through the wall out into the open hallway. The conversation grew hushed as he approached the kitchen, and when Harry looked through the doorway he found the two still-living boys sitting at the table, a laptop very similar to Duo's between them. The little blonde was watching his friend with a worried look on his face. "Duo..."

Duo turned back around, shaking his head. "He's real, Q. It doesn't make sense, it doesn't follow the rules, but it's true all the same."

Harry blinked. He didn't mind, but he really hadn't expected the braided boy to tell... Did the American really trust his friend that much? Intrigued, he drifted closer, automatically taking one of the empty seats at the table even though he technically didn't need to. Human habits had a tendency of lingering on after death.

He was astonished by the reaction he got. Quatre squeaked and spun around, one hand going to his chest and the other to a pocket. Duo sat up in his chair, looking surprised. "Q, what is it?"

-

The Arabian's eyes were flicking wildly around the room, and Duo knew the hand in his pocket was clenching the snub-nosed revolver the blonde usually carried. "There's someone here," the other pilot replied in an undertone.

Duo tensed and reached for his own gun. "Outside?" How the hell could OZ have found them so quickly?

But Quatre shook his head, his eyes still frantically searching for _something_. "No. _In the room with us_."

For a moment the braided teenager stared at him, his violet eyes wide and his mouth open. Then, slowly, his lips began to curl upwards, and Quatre watched with dismay as Duo started to chuckle, then laugh outright.

"Harry," the American managed to gasp out in between guffaws, "it's kinda rude to eavesdrop, y'know."

Quatre blinked, then gasped. "He's... _laughing_," he said. "It's _him_ I've been feeling!"

Duo gave him a bright smile. "Told ya so, Quat." He looked around, his eyes narrowed. "What are you waitin' for?" he asked, not seeing the ghost anywhere. "Come on out, ya don't need to be shy."

The other boy bit his lip, frowning in concentration. "He's sad, now. I don't think he can."

"Weird. He could just fine last night..." Duo tugged on the end of his braid. "Wonder if that's it? You can only come out at night? But the first time I saw you it was during the day," he asked the open air, tilting his head quizzically to the side.

Quatre closed his eyes, listening to his space heart. "That's very confusing, you know," he told their invisible company with a hint of censure. "I can't feel you right when you're projecting that many emotions." A few seconds went by, and the blonde head nodded. "That's much better, thank you." He opened his eyes. "As far as I can tell, that's a qualified 'no'. And might I mention that translating for a _ghost_ is the strangest thing I have ever done?"

His friend laughed. "Just broadenin' your horizons, that's all. So, you can't tell us now, but can ya tell us tonight?" he again addressed to the empty air.

"A definite yes," Quatre told him, smiling.

Duo clapped his hands. "Well then, it's a date!" They shared an exhilarated grin, then jumped as they heard the sound of a car pulling the drive.

"That must be Trowa and Wufei." Quatre rose from the table, looking as calm as could be, but Duo knew inside his friend was really doing back flips of joy. The blonde always hated it when he was separated from his lover for more than a few hours.

He followed Quatre out into the hallway. They waited impatiently as they listened to the voices speaking outside, approaching the door. The Arabian leapt forward to open it, almost falling into his lover's arms. Trowa didn't even blink, just held him close as a bemused Wufei watched from behind. As the clinch went on, the Chinese pilot finally snorted and maneuvered past the two of them.

"Maxwell," he greeted Duo with a matter-of-fact nod. "Any problems?"

Duo grinned. "Not _problems_, per se. But the house is haunted."

Wufei gave him a flat look. "Now isn't the time for jokes, Maxwell. I've been traveling all day, I'm tired, I am _not_ in the mood." With a tired sigh, he walked past the American and into the house.

For an instant shocked outrage filled Duo, but then he closed his eyes and forced it down. In a way, Wufei was right. This _was_ the kind of joke he would normally play, and it wasn't like he was serious often enough for the other pilots to be able to recognize it. With a sigh of his own he followed the other boy inside.

"Hey," he called out, making Wufei pause at the head of the stairs and turn back to look down at him. "The master bedroom's Q and Tro's, the little one's mine. Pick either of the other two. And 'Fei?" The teenager, who had nodded and started to move away, again paused. "Wasn't jokin', man."

With that, he turned and walked back outside to make sure the two lovebirds actually parted in this century, leaving Wufei staring after him in disbelief.

-

Hours later, Duo lay back on his bed with his laptop sitting on him stomach, absently going over Ozzie supply routes as he watched the sun set through the window. It wouldn't be much longer now… Quatre had said he was going to show for the meeting with Harry, so _he_ should be there in a couple of minutes, too…

As though the thought had summoned him, there was a knock on the door. "Come in," Duo called, shifting the laptop to the bed and sitting up. Quatre poked his golden head inside.

"Any sign of him yet?"

Duo shook his head, gesturing towards the window. "Still not dark yet. Maybe another ten minutes or so."

Quatre nodded and stepped inside, followed closely by Trowa. The braided boy wasn't all that surprised; Q would never want to leave his boyfriend out of something like this. "Think we can get the Wu-man in here too?" he asked instead of commenting on the European boy's presence. "The look on his face'd be _priceless_."

"And what look would that be?"

Duo grinned, bouncing up off the bed and over to the doorway. "The one you'll be wearin' when ya meet Harry," he told the Chinese pilot as he dragged him through the still-open door.

"And who, pray tell," Wufei inquired as he fought to free himself from Duo's grip, "is Harry?"

"He's the resident ghost," Quatre said with a serene little smile.

Wufei closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath, breaking free of the over-exuberant American. "So, he's roped you into this too? Come on, Winner, there are no such things as ghosts."

The smaller boy sighed and shrugged. "I don't know if he's really a _ghost_, but there _is_ another person in this house."

Duo snorted, plopping himself back down in his original position. "He's see-through and floats a couple goddamn inches off the floor. That spells a freakin' ghost to me. Not to mention he's got a death-day an' all."

Trowa quirked a bemused brow, settling gracefully into the desk chair. "Death-day?"

"Well, if you have a birthday ya can have a death-day too, right?" Duo frowned. "Hey, wait, except he _died_ on his birthday. Does that mean he's only got one?"

Wufei shook his head. "I don't know how he's gotten you wrapped up in this farce, but I've had just about enough of it. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play _non_-imaginary games." He stepped back and turned around to leave.

Just as the last of the sun's rays faded from the skies.

Wufei let out a thoroughly undignified yelp as a translucent, faintly-glowing boy popped into sight right in front of his nose.

* * *

A/N: I just love abusing 'Fei… Guys, it's going to be a while before I update on this again. The reason is that I just threw out most of my plotting with this chapter; the other G-boys weren't supposed to find out for _months_. I need to work out just where this is going. Again.

And another chapter I had to retype up 'cause the bloody PDA wouldn't spit it out… grumbles

* * *

_Our most sincere gratitude to _**A lilmatchgirl**, **Blackrosebunny**, **Bluespark**, **Bob the Almighty**, **bookfanatic84**, **Bunch-o-Nuts**, **Cattibrie393**, **Chara13**, **Cor****-chan**, **DarrkKatt**, **DigitalAngel4U**, **Drusilla**, **E.A.V.**, **Eve of Destiny**, **Fate**, **Firehedgehog**, **Goku**** Koneko Sage**, **Grey Mitten**, **Hikagi**, **J-chan8**, **Jewelle2**, **JJ CJ**, **jordan**, **Kaaera**, **Kimpatsu**** no Hoseki**, **kirstie**** hileman**, **Lady Manetsu** (looks curious Could you tell me what that means? I've done the direct translation, but with Latin a lot of times the direct route doesn't lead to the true meaning), **Lasgalenya**** Greenleaves**, **Maryna**, **maybeso**, **Mithros**, **momocolady**, **peacockgal17**, **Rena Lupin**, **Shini**** no Tenshi**, **silverkitcat**, **Skye-Chan 12**, **Sliver of Melody**, **stuck-in-a-tree**, **Sweetest Thang**, **Toki Mirage**, **Vwolf**** Youjutsu**, _and _**Wren Truesong** _for reviewing.

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_

6 October 2005


	9. In Which We See A Meeting

**Warnings and Disclaimers:** Um. Lack of anything resembling a plan? I'm feeling my way through the dark, here. And that last scene just popped out of nowhere.

* * *

Wufei yelled again, toppling backwards in his shock as a hand fumbled for his gun. Getting it free, he pointed it at the apparition. "What the hell!"

Harry stared at the gun pointed at his nose, his eyes going a little cross-eyed as he tried to focus on it. "And just what do you think _that_ will do?" he asked, caught somewhere between amusement and irritation. The ghost leaned forward and pointedly waved his hand through the weapon.

For a long moment the only sound in the room was Duo's laughter as he rolled on the bed clutching his sides. Then Quatre broke the semi-quiet. "I can feel you, Harry, but... I'm afraid I don't see you."

The American stopped laughing, and he and Harry both turned to look at the Arabian. "You can't?" they asked in unison.

He shook his head. "Neither can I," Trowa said, still searching the space Harry was standing in. "Though there is a faint shimmer when I look from the corner of my eye."

Quatre blinked and turned his head to the side. "Oh, yes, I see it. It almost looks like a heat wave..."

"You... you really can't see him?" Wufei asked, still staring at Harry in something akin to horror. His gun was still aimed, but his hand was wavering.

The blonde shook his head, oblivious to the way the ghost was now frowning. "That's quite rude, you know," he told the pilot, his voice even more clipped and accented than before. Gathering his will, Harry reached out again, and this time gently pushed the gun down.

The Oriental boy was too startled to resist. "What the hell?" he said again in a bewildered whisper.

"Harry? How are you doing that?" Duo asked, sitting up.

"Technically I'm not a ghost," Harry answered, feeling himself waver. A gun was much harder to affect than a light switch, and it was a moment before he could get the wards to give up enough magic for him to stabilize.

There wasn't much left, and he felt a familiar pang of worry. The wards wouldn't support him much longer, and after that...

No one was sure what happened to ghosts who ran out of magic. Maybe they moved on, maybe not. Harry didn't really want to find out.

"You're not?" Duo looked confused, and a little wary.

Harry shook his head. "I'm a poltergeist. If I have enough power and I work at it I can touch things. But it takes more power to appear during the day than the night."

"You managed it that first day," Duo protested. "You knocked my laptop over!"

Eyebrows raised at that, and Harry flushed silver. "Er, right. Sorry about that... I hadn't exactly exerted myself in a while, so I had some magic stored."

"Magic," Wufei muttered. His face was pained, and he seemed to have given up on getting up off the floor.

The wizard glanced at Duo. "I take it you didn't tell them about that part?"

The American shrugged. "Hey, wasn't really expectin' them to believe me about _you_."

"Good point."

"Would one of you _please_ translate for us?" Quatre asked, his voice syrupy sweet with irritation. "In case you've forgotten, _we can't hear him_!"

The room fell to silence.

Harry carefully edged over to Duo, not taking his eyes off the little blonde. "He's... rather frightening at times, isn't he?" Wufei took the opportunity to rise and move to the far side of the room from the specter.

Duo grinned. "He says you're scary sometimes," he obediently relayed.

Quatre looked taken aback, and Trowa pulled him down to sit on his lap. "This from a ghost?" the brown-haired pilot commented.

"Poltergeist," Duo and Harry corrected together, though of course Wufei was the only other person who could hear the latter.

"What's the difference?" Quatre asked, leaning forward.

Harry thought for a moment, then stepped over to the bookshelf. The few books still resting in it were his; someone had come, during that whirlwind of insensibility that was all he could remember of the first few weeks after his murder, and removed all his clothing, but they'd missed everything else. Now, he reached out and, focusing, edged out one of the volumes.

He would have done more, but the little energy he'd gathered ran out fast. There almost wasn't enough left to sustain clear visibility until they would reset at midnight.

The other boys noticed the way he flickered, too. "Harry?" Duo asked. Even Wufei looked concerned.

"I don't have a lot of magic left," Harry answered, half of his attention on the wards. The American translated _sotto voce_. "The wards will regenerate at midnight, but until then..."

Aquamarine eyes widened in curiosity. "Wards?"

The ghost wasn't sure who to direct his words to now. Finally he shrugged and just turned directly to Duo. "There were blood wards set on the house when I was a baby. They were supposed to protect me-" Wufei interrupted with an eloquent snort, "but now they produce just enough magic for me to, well, not really _live_ off of, but you get the point."

"I wonder if these wards are what is preserving the house?" Quatre murmured. "That would explain quite a lot."

Harry flickered again, and when he stabilized he was noticeably dimmer than before. Duo frowned. "Man, you weren't kidding when you said ya didn't have much left."

The ghost shook his head. "No, I wasn't."

He couldn't keep all of his worry out of his voice, but thankfully only Duo seemed to hear it. The American studied him for a long minute, his frown deepening, but in the end he just shook his head. "You should probably rest, or whatever it is ghosts do. We can bug you later. Midnight, right?"

Harry nodded in gratitude. Ghosts couldn't really exhaust themselves, not in the normal sense anyway, but he was definitely feeling strained. "Midnight, yeah."

"Wake me up, then." Duo blinked. "Um, if ya can, I mean..."

The ghost smirked. "Oh, I can. Don't worry about that." With a nod to them, he let himself fade out of sight. The floor was no barrier to him, and he headed for his sanctuary under the stairs.

In the room behind him, Duo watched Quatre patiently. The blonde sat with his hand over his heart, concentrating. "He's gone," he finally said. "I can't feel him anymore."

The pilots relaxed as the tension in the room immediately dropped. Duo fell back until he was once again stretched out on the bed, muscles he hadn't even realized were wound tight loosening up. Oh, he liked Harry well enough. He just didn't trust him, especially since with his ability to stay invisible even to those who _could_ see him, only Quatre could sense the ghost if he didn't want to be seen.

"He was worried about something," Quatre continued. "Very worried, but it felt as though he was trying to suppress it."

The American nodded, staring up at the ceiling. "Yeah, he sounded worried when he mentioned there wasn't much magic left. There's somethin' he's not telling us."

Wufei still twitched whenever he heard the word "magic but the reaction was beginning to lessen. "Something that could harm us?"

Duo thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Nah. He doesn't seem like the type to keep back something like that. More probably it's something about him."

"Whatever it is, try to find out later. We can't take any chances." Quatre got up off Trowa's lap and grasped his lover's hand. "Until then, though, I'm sure we all have things to be doing."

He led the other pilots out the door, leaving Duo alone in his room. Or Harry's room, whichever. Harry didn't seem to spend much of his time in it, though maybe that was really just out of consideration for Duo's privacy…

And just where did the ghost go, when he wasn't following him around? The braided boy decided to ask just that when Harry showed up again.

-

Wufei sat on his bed in the former guest bedroom, his normally good posture for once nowhere to be found as he slumped with his head in his hands. He didn't want to believe. He'd believed once, when he was very young; believed in magic, and things that he could see but no one else could.

His mother had encouraged him in it, telling him the old tales of her family every night before she tucked him into bed. She spoke of an entire world filled with people like him, one that had fallen to darkness long ago, and told him he was something truly special. But his father was a proud man, not one given to such superstition. When he found out about the stories, he forbade his wife to tell the young, impressionable boy any more of them, enforcing it when necessary with the back of his hand. When she sickened and died not more than a year later, despite all the doctors could do, he considered the matter over and done with.

Events seemed to prove the man right. The strange happenings around his only son slowed, then stopped altogether, and Wufei no longer saw things others couldn't. As the years passed, he grew to dismiss his fading memories as the daydreams and fancies of a child who'd grown up without other boys his age to play with.

But now it was happening again. He'd seen something far out of the realm of ordinary, and Maxwell shared that vision. Winner sensed him with his empathy, and even Barton could see _something_. Harry was real, and logic concluded, however reluctantly, that all the things he remembered from his childhood were real as well. The world had just become a very strange place, one that demanded he believe in things he'd been told were nothing more than flights of fancy.

And now Wufei, usually so confident in all that he did, didn't know what to do.

It was a supremely uncomfortable feeling.

* * *

A/N: All right, that's it, I'm just going to burn any future attempts at planning. I can't seem to follow them for more than a chapter or two anyway. Heero should be here soon, though…

I probably should work on this more, but I just got my first cavities filled in, and despite all the reassurances of the nurse the Novocaine's making my head fuzzy. I think I'll go lie down… Ta!

* * *

_Our most sincere gratitude to_ **A-Brighter-Dawn**, **Akua**, **A lilmatchgirl** (Personally, I think it's because of that damn stick up his arse. Heero has one too, but he's lethal to play with.), **Capricious Purple Clarity**, **CatClawz**, **Cor-chan** (Yep. sighs), **elusive**, **Fate**, **Firehedgehog**, **Goku** **Koneko Sage**, **jordan**, **kinguofdoragons**, **kirallie**, **LassyD**, **Makurayami** **Ookami**, **maleficus-lupus**, **Maryna**, **Mithros**, **momocolady**, **Omnicat**, **Shinigami**, **Shinigami-chan**, **Sliver of Melody**, **stuck-in-a-tree**, **Sutoomu**, **sydneydallas**, **Toki Mirage**, **webwever** (grins I'm glad someone picked up on that before I came out and said it), **VB**, **Wraith**, _and_ **YumiAngel** _for reviewing._

_Special thanks to_ **Makurayami Ookami** _and _**Sutoomu** _for actually going through and reviewing each chapter.

* * *

_

14 November 2005


	10. In Which We See Impulsive Behavior

**_Warnings and Disclaimers: _**I'm afraid I had to mention that one-sided Harry/Cho thing from canon. Gags Also, the second half of this I wrote on my dad's computer, which only has Wordpad, and thus no Spellcheck. If you see any glaring errors, please point them out so I can fix them.

* * *

The clock blinked. 

10:47, it told him in bright red numbers.

Just like it had the last time he'd looked. Duo groaned and rolled away from the clock, burying his face in his pillow. Midnight wasn't going to get here any time soon if he kept watching the clock, but he couldn't _sleep_…

He blamed Harry. His life had been nice and simple… okay, not nice by any stretch of the imagination, but being a Gundam pilot was actually fairly simple, if stressful. Now he was lying awake at night waiting for a meeting with a ghost to talk about what was wrong with magical wards.

Duo had had some pretty weird thoughts run through his head before, but that one had to take the cake, the platter, and all the nice pretty candles with it. Now all he needed was for Dracula to show up with some of his werewolf buddies to make the night complete.

_For Christ's sake, Maxwell, don't jinx it!_

He groaned again and determinedly shut his eyes. Maybe if he just counted sheep, or something…

-

Harry's eyes opened as he felt a distant something in his perceptions twist and then right itself. Fresh power trickled into him, and he smiled. The resetting of the wards always felt strange, but the results more than made up for it.

Still smiling, he pushed himself upwards, drifting through the ceiling of the cupboard and then the landing above. The Chinese boy who seemed so familiar had already gone to bed, his lights off. There weren't any lights on in the master bedroom, either, but as he passed the ghost heard sounds coming from behind it that made him hurry past, wearing a silvery blush.

When Harry slipped through the door of his old room, he found Duo slumbering restlessly, lying on his back with an arm flung above his head and little frown lines between his eyebrows. Harry spent a moment watching him thoughtfully, before a truly evil plan entered his mind. Smirking, he bent down and thrust his arm through the mattress up to the elbow.

Once he was in position, he slowly brought his hand up, until he was cupping the back of Duo's neck.

Now, what ghosts are made of is called ectoplasm, a substance that, while not quite antimatter, is certainly not matter as the term is generally understood. Scholarly wizards had long before determined that it was, in fact, pure magic given not-quite-corporeal form. This presented a bit of a quandary, for as everyone knew, magic proceeded from life. Ghosts were, by definition, not at all alive, so how could their very firmament consist of something they could not produce?

It was at this point that an enterprising young witch- a muggleborn, actually- noted the much greater concentration of specters, spirits, and spooks in highly magical locations. After a few years of the magical world ignoring her theory, a wizard, who was this time a proper pureblood, stumbled across her notes. He postulated that ghosts in fact fed off of the magic in their surroundings, using it to maintain their identities and non-physical selves.

This was indeed the correct theory, and was accepted by those in the general population who were actually interested in such things.

The other half of Harry's diabolical scheme was better explained by muggle physics. More specifically, energy's tendency to transfer from an area of high energy to an area of low, until equilibrium is reached; this is commonly called conduction, or more accurately in this case, convection. As stated earlier, ghosts absorb magic, along with other, less usable forms of energy from the world around them. In order to facilitate the transfer, ghosts remained at as low an energy level as possible, so as to entice energy to cross over.

The most common manifestation of moving energy is known as heat. In other words, for Harry the Ghost to absorb his needed magic, which usually came in the form of heat, he himself needed to be at as low a temperature as possible. This left his barely-physical self, as it would later be described, "colder than a witch's tit," which he found more than a bit insulting on behalf of his witch friends.

Thus, when Harry put his plan into motion, it was quite understandable why the American went suddenly airborne with a blood-curdling yell.

-

For a moment the house was silent, as Duo struggled to untangle himself from his blankets. Then two doors slammed open, three adrenaline-pumping Gundam pilots piled into the room with drawn weapons, and one ghost wisely decided to return to invisibility.

The others were just in time to see Duo jump to his feet, his violet eyes flashing. "I swear I'm going to kill him!" he snarled, searching the room for his intended victim. "I swear I will! I'll wring his scrawny little neck…"

Trowa glided to the window, making sure the room was covered from all angles. "Who?" he asked, his gun ready in his hand.

"Harry!"

For a minute no one said anything; they just stared at the braided teenager. Finally Wufei uncocked his pistol and stepped further inside. "Maxwell, you do realize he's already dead?" he asked, a growing smirk on his face. "And untouchable besides?"

Duo growled at him, and the martial artist felt an unexpected spark of glee. At last, the American was getting a taste of his own medicine!

If this was the kind of thing they could expect, perhaps sharing a house with a… a _ghost_, wouldn't be as bad as he'd thought.

-

Duo bent down to grab his blankets, still scowling. "Well, he sure managed to touch me! Put his hand- his freaking _cold_ hand- on the back of my goddamn neck!"

Lowering his weapon, Quatre very carefully looked away, but the pilot still caught the tiny twitch of his lips. Trowa's face was blank, but Wufei's obvious enjoyment more than made up for it.

"You _did_ tell me to wake you up," Harry's disembodied voice echoed through the room, making both Duo and Wufei jump in surprise.

"I didn't mean like that!" Duo told him, looking around the room for their erstwhile host.

Harry faded into view in the corner of the room. "You have to admit, it's not like I have that many options," he pointed out.

The American glared at him. "You couldn't have just said somethin'?"

The ghost gave him an even look. "As I recall, I tried that before. You fell off the bed that time, too."

A choked-off laugh sounded from Wufei's direction, and Duo flushed. "Just... don't do it again, alright? Remember the little discussion we had about heart attacks and how I _really_ don't want to be stuck haunting this hellhole?"

It was Harry's turn to flush, this time, and he nodded. "Sorry. I won't do it again, I promise, it was just..."

A tentative smile crept onto his face, lighting it up, and Duo felt his anger suddenly melt away. It really had been a good prank, now that he could think about it objectively, and Harry had to be desperate for any kind of entertainment after three hundred years alone in this place. He nodded, both accepting the apology and conceding the point.

Quatre sighed in irritation. "If no one's invading and you're not going to translate, then we're going to go back to bed. Tell us about it in the morning."

From the corner of his eye, Duo saw Harry flush again for some reason as the two of them left. He turned to the ghost with a curious expression. "What's with the blushing?"

If anything, the ghost flushed an even brighter silver. "I, er... never really thought going to bed meant making sounds like that..."

Within seconds, Duo was deep in the throes of full-blown laughter, while Wufei merely leaned against the wall, smirking. Mortified, Harry vanished again.

"No, no... come back! I'll... stop laughing, I... swear!" Duo managed to gasp out. "Eventually!"

It was a minute or so before the boy appeared again, having regained control of his blush. Instead, he was frowning at Wufei.

"What is it now?" the Chinese pilot snapped, his smirk fading into a frown.

"I know we've never met before; it's just not possible," Harry said, looking confused. "But you still seem really familiar." He continued staring at Wufei as the other two blinked, startled. "...You remind me of someone I went to school with, a girl a year ahead of me."

Wufei's eyes narrowed, his chauvinistic tendencies coming to the fore at being compared to a female, but the spirit wasn't done. "Her name was Cho Chang."

Duo grinned and started to say something, but then realized he'd never introduced the two. "Yeesh, I almost forgot. Harry Potter, meet Chang Wufei. Wanna bet they're related somehow?"

Harry gave him a startled look, and then drifted nearer to the astonished teenager to peer at him from close range. "No bet. He has her eyes." He suddenly snickered. "I should know, I spent enough time staring at them. I had the biggest crush on her the year before last."

Duo chose to ignore the chronical slippage. Dying probably did not-nice things to your memory. "She was quite the girl, then?"

Harry nodded, floating back to give an obviously-relieved Wufei more room. "She was one hell of a Seeker, and a really good witch, too."

"She was a witch?"Duo asked on autopilot, trying not to frown. Ever since the revelation that Harry had known a possible ancestor, Wufei had been suspiciously quiet... Then his mind caught up with his mouth. "Wait. You were a wizard, she was a witch, and you went to school together? What kind of school...?"

The ghost nodded again. "We both went to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The best one in the Western hemisphere, though I don't know about any schools in the East."

"You were organized, had schools, and no one _noticed_!"

Harry snorted. "We had our own _world_, and no one noticed because the Obliviators erased the memory of anyone who did."

There was a short, sudden intake of air from Wufei, and Duo knew the other pilot's mind had followed the same course as his own. "A world no one knew about, and you died three hundred years ago," the braided boy said slowly, putting the pieces together. "Right around the same time a war starts with no known combatants, and no visible winner. That's... one hell of a coincidence."

He kept his eyes on Harry, and was rewarded with the slightest widening of his colorless eyes. "What the hell was going on back then?" he asked, leaning forward.

"And why the hell were _you_ involved?"

* * *

A/N: Yes, I know, been forever, yada yada. I actually enjoyed writing this chapter, though, which I hadn't the last one. Hopefully the chapter will reflect that... As noted above, please point out any spelling errors (I'm anal retentive/paranoid about 'em).

My thanks and a hug to everyone who reviewed last time.

* * *

**7/8 June 2006 (it's midnight as I'm posting, take your pick)**


	11. In Which We See A Lack of Trust

Warnings and Disclaimers: Another dialogue chapter. 'Fraid there's going to be quite a few of those…

* * *

Harry stared at the young American like a deer caught in the headlights, his eyes wide and surprised and oddly helpless under the stares of the pilots. Duo was briefly tempted to let up on him, seeing the look in his eyes, but just the fact that the ghost had reacted at all meant Duo's hunch had some substance to it, and Harry really did know something. "I- why would you say that?" the spirit stammered, seeming to shrink into himself. "And... what war?"

Duo frowned. "You died in 1996, right? The Shadow War started right around then..." He glanced at Wufei, who was usually the most scholarly of the pilots.

The Chinese boy nodded. "It was _in_ 1996," he confirmed.

Duo had to blink at that. "You're kidding..." Barely sparing a glance for Harry, who had settled onto his bed with his knees curled to his chest, the teenager moved to the laptop sitting on top of the plain desk.

It only took a few moments to get it turned out and his search parameters entered. The results... well, they weren't as surprising as he thought they maybe should have been. "It didn't just start the year he died," Duo said, his voice flat. "It started the day after." He turned towards the ghost, his mouth open to demand an explanation.

Nothing came out, though, when he saw Harry's face. The wizard was staring at nothing, a spot floating somewhere in the middle of the room. He had faded until Duo had to squint to make out details, but that distant stare was clear enough. "That's why," he murmured, and both of the pilots leaned forward to hear better.

"That's why what?" Duo asked, much more gently than he had before. While it was obvious that Harry was somehow connected to the Shadow War, it was equally obvious that up until this moment, he hadn't known anything about it. "Harry?"

"That's why they never came for me after I died," Harry whispered, meeting the braided boy's gaze with grief-stricken silver eyes. "They were already dead."

-

It took some time for them to get anything else out of the nearly catatonic ghost. Quatre popped his head in once, concerned by the dramatic change in the emotions of the room, but Duo waved him off and kept telling Harry hopefully-soothing nonsense. Wufei watched from his spot against the far wall, frowning with what Duo knew he would never admit was concern.

"I'm sorry," Harry finally said, lifting his face from his knees. "I didn't mean to be a bother." He was still pale- more pale than he usually was, anyway- but he was at least back in the present.

"It's cool," Duo told him, forgetting for a moment and reaching out to touch his shoulder. The burning cold he encountered instead was a painful reminder, and he pulled back with a hiss. "So, feel up to explaining?" the teenager asked, rubbing his fingers to try and get some feeling back into them.

Harry nodded tentatively. "I guess." He took a deep breath out of pure habit and then began. "The first thing you have to understand is that wizards are like any other people. There are good wizards, a lot of them, but some go bad."

They nodded along. It wasn't exactly surprising, after all. "Just after Grindewald's War, the one that crossed into the muggle world as World War II," the ghost ignored Wufei's grunt of surprise, "a wizard named Tom Riddle went through school. After he graduated, he took the name Voldemort and began practicing the Dark Arts, the worst of all magics. They corrupted him, even more than he was already, until in the seventies he decided to take over the wizarding world and purge it of all those he considered unworthy of practicing magic." Harry stopped and blinked. "Er, that's the 1970s..."

Duo waved him on. The story was just starting to get good, even if it did sound a lot like that twentieth century series of movies he'd seen once, what was it, Star Wars...? Hey, maybe Harry'd seen those; they were right around his time. He'd have to ask at some point.

"Um, right. Well, Voldemort's first rise to power was while my parents were in school, and things came to a head soon after they graduated, when I was just a year or so old. There was an incident that pretty much knocked him from the playing field for another decade and a half, until he finally returned when I was almost fifteen. He stayed quiet for a year, making everyone think his return was just a rumor. Then he attacked the Ministry of Magic a couple of months ago." Harry shook his head. "I don't know what happened after that. I was stuck here with my aunt and uncle."

Wufei frowned. "That doesn't explain why your death precipitated this Voldemort's war."

Harry glanced at him with startled eyes, and then smiled, much to their surprise. "You said his name," he said with a hint of wonder.

"Yes... Just as you did..." Wufei said cautiously. "Why?"

The ghost's smile faltered. "Most people were too afraid to. I was muggle-raised, so I never learned to be afraid of his name, but you should have seen how wizards would react when I said it. Professor Dumbledore hated it. He told me being afraid of the name only makes you more afraid of the person it belongs to."

The Chinese boy wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Cowards," he muttered, not quite under his breath.

"Tell me about it," Harry replied, smiling bitterly. When Duo quirked a brow at him, though, inviting him to continue, he just shook his head. "You wanted to know why my dying was so important," he said suddenly, peering intently at them from behind thick, translucent glasses.

The pilots exchanged glances, and Duo nodded.

Harry stared at them a minute longer, judging them with his gaze, and the American saw the little flicker in his eyes, the instant he decided he couldn't fully trust them. "My parents were... involved in the incident that brought the Dark Lord down. They sacrificed themselves, trying to kill him, and it was my mother who very nearly succeeded as she died. Then, when he came back, I was the only one left of the family that had destroyed him."

There were a few moments of silence. "...There's more to it than that, isn't there?" Duo asked with an uncharacteristic quiet. He couldn't imagine what it would be like, having an evil wizard after you. Yeah, OZ was bad, and pretty scary on those rare occasions he stopped to think about it, but somehow adding evil magic into the equation made it the stuff of nightmares.

"Yes," the ghost answered, his face set, "but you don't need to know it. It's not important anymore. Voldemort lost."

"And just how could you know that if you claim to have had no contact with the outside world since you died?" Wufei wondered out loud, his dark eyes narrowed suspiciously. Duo nearly grinned; for being so wigged about all this earlier, Wufei sure had adjusted quick to talking about things that he himself still half-expected to get shipped off to the funny farm over.

Harry laughed, a laugh that made them wince because there was nothing happy about it. "I know he lost because your muggle friends are alive. If Voldemort had won, they would never have been born, because he would have slaughtered every muggle he could after taking over the wizarding world. I just hope whoever finally managed to kill him took their time about it."

"So this Voldemort guy killed you, then?" Duo grimaced as he realized how callous that had sounded, but Harry didn't seem offended.

"No, I didn't get that honor," the wizard said, shaking his head. "He sent some of his Death Eaters, the wizards who followed him. They killed the Dursleys while they were sleeping and then came after me."

"I'm sorry for the loss of your family," Wufei said, bowing his head.

"I'm not." Two pairs of wide eyes fastened on the ghost. "They weren't my family. Family doesn't..." Harry took a deep, unnecessary breath. "We didn't get along," he said with forced calmness.

This time the silence stretched longer. Wufei broke it with an awkward cough, pushing himself way from his wall. "I'm going to bed," he said. "If you don't want to be useless in the morning, Maxwell, I'd suggest you do the same."

Duo waved a hand, glad the tension had been at least partially broken. "Yeah, yeah, in a few minutes, Wu-man," he said, swinging his legs out over the side of the bed.

He smirked as Wufei growled at the nickname, but left the room rather than press the argument down its old, familiar paces. "Well, that was fun. Things always this exciting around here?"

Harry's lips twitched into an unwilling smile. "I'm afraid the bustle's settled down a bit since you got here. You might have better luck trying again next century, assuming I'm still here."

Duo had closed his eyes, but cracked one open now to look at his erstwhile host. "Oh? You planning on going somewhere?"

Harry shrugged, pulling his knees close to his chest again. The braided teenager elected not to mention that he'd drifted back a bit through the headboard. "Depends on how long the wards last, how much energy I keep using."

"There's a limit, then?"

The ghost nodded. "Yeah. Every time the wards recharge there's a little less. Shows you just how strong they were that they've lasted this long, even if they didn't work to protect me."

That kind of made sense. Even something like magic would have to obey the law of entropy. Sounded pretty ominous for the spirit whose existence depended on it, though. "How much longer is it going to last you?"

Harry shrugged again. "Depends. Maybe half of what was there in the beginning is left, so if I go back to using as little as possible I might get another three hundred years out of it."

"And if you keep using it up like... this?" Duo asked, gesturing towards the ghost's silvery, but perfectly visible form.

The wizard chewed his lip unhappily. "Maybe... It might stretch to a year. But I don't think it'd be that long."

Duo closed his eyes for a moment. "Shit." What would it be like, after three hundred years of existence, to realize you only had one left before... "What happens after that?" he asked, opening his eyes again to look at the person he suspected might in another world have become one of his few friends.

Harry shrugged for the third time, playing with a loose thread on the clothes he'd died in, and abruptly rose from the bed. "He's right, you should get some sleep," he said, drifting out to the middle of the room. "We can talk tomorrow, if you'd like."

He was halfway through the floor before Duo spoke, his torso sticking out like some macabre sculpture. "You don't trust us, do you?"

Harry paused and turned to look at him. "…Twice now since I've met you people you've stuck guns in my face. They can't hurt me, but unless things have really changed children shouldn't be carrying them. Are you going to tell me why?"

When a minute passed without an answer from a chagrined Duo, the wizard nodded, and made his way out.

-

In a hotel room in Münich, Heero Yuy tossed his bag onto his new bed. It had been a long, tiring journey, and it was late enough that it made more sense to continue on to the safehouse in the morning. In the complete absence of any emergency calls, he was sure the other pilots were safe and sound, and that everything was going to plan. It had only been three days, after all.

How could anything out of the ordinary have possibly happened already?

* * *

A/N: No, I'm not dead. Just… hibernating. Yeah. Cold is bad, where are you summer, I need you…

Hopefully the site's back up enough to get the alert to y'all.

* * *

5 January 2007

(Just as I'd gotten used to dating things '06…)


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